The Value of Teacher Preparation Programs

The Value of Comprehensive, University-Based Teacher Education Programs (TEPs) for Oklahoma Children By Robin Fuxa, Vanessa Anton, Bryan Duke, Stewart Mayers, Elizabeth Smith, and Elizabeth Harden Willner with Cari Keller and Megan Ruby What kind of preparation should teachers in Oklahoma have before teaching in our public schools? This is a difficult question when considering the challenges that schools have had staffing classrooms in the past few years. Starting with the premise that all of our children should have an effective teacher in their classrooms each year from day one, this paper provides evidence of the value of comprehensive teacher preparation. Considering that even the earliest learning experiences can affect children for the rest of their lives, we urge you to consider the educator you want for your own children or grandchildren. Educator preparedness matters for children. The Role of the Comprehensive, University-Based Teacher Education Program Students thrive when their teachers are well-prepared to meet their instructional and developmental needs. Comprehensively prepared teachers delve deeply into subject area knowledge, they understand teaching and learning (pedagogy) including assessment and data-driven decision making, and they successfully apply that understanding. They practice and participate with increasing levels of responsibility with students in schools, learning the art and science of teaching from excellent school- based and university-based mentor teachers. Teacher Education Programs (TEPs) offer comprehensive preparation that integrates future teachers’ developing knowledge of students and classrooms with hands-on experiences that prepare them to be excellent beginning teachers. Their success as novices more likely encourages their commitment to this immensely challenging and profoundly rewarding profession. Accurate content knowledge is important. In university-based TEPs, future teachers demonstrate content knowledge across the curriculum before and during their education coursework and field- based experiences; this enables them to develop skills that put their content knowledge to use in working with students. Teachers in our evidence-based, comprehensive programs study not only how to teach but why they would choose one approach over another, gaining a full and rich understanding which fosters effective decision making to serve student learning. Comprehensively prepared teachers develop and deliver culturally relevant and inclusive curricula to foster the success of all children and demonstrate respect for our richly diverse communities. Further, fully prepared educators are ready on day one to utilize reliable, responsive classroom management strategies through which children learn to self-regulate, effectively collaborate, and resolve conflict. Those completing comprehensive teacher education Updated September 10, 2019 1 become professionals through a thoughtful and experiential approach that readies them to work with Oklahoma public school children and teens, including those with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Finally, it is crucial for students to have teachers who have demonstrated successful performance in socio-economically and ethnically diverse settings before they meet their own first class of Oklahoma children or teens. The Proliferation of Emergency Certification in Oklahoma As most Oklahomans are aware, each year since 2009, the number of unprepared and underprepared teachers entering classrooms has skyrocketed, reaching 3,038 approvals for emergency certification in 2018-2019 (OSSBA, 2019) with record-setting approvals for June and July totalling 1,666 for this school year that’s just beginning (Eger, 2019). The purpose of this white paper is not to criticize those who have stepped up to enter into this challenging, rewarding profession through emergency certification; these individuals are both needed and appreciated. The alternative would be empty classrooms or even larger class sizes, which would certainly not allow appropriate attention to students or help retain a district’s existing teachers. In fact, several of our institutions have already launched programs to work with districts to support and retain those who have entered via this route, including onsite cohorts and fully online options. However, we must address the concern that the vast majority of new teachers entering Oklahoma classrooms at this time are through a route that is intended to be extremely rare in extenuating circumstances. We cannot accept employing untrained teachers as the new normal for Oklahoma’s children and teens. For those entering through emergency certification, no preparation is required before becoming a teacher. Applicants need to hold a bachelor’s degree, which may or may not be in the content area of instruction. A 2019 law added the requirement of six clock-hours of professional development prior to beginning, though this will be difficult to enforce given last-minute hiring. They may or may not have any background in how to teach. Oklahoma Data and the Research on the Impact of Preparation on Children’s Learning A large-scale study that examines the effects of emergency certification or other sub-standard teacher credentialing (Podolsky, Darling-Hammond, Doss, and Reardon, 2019) found a clear, significant, and negative impact on student achievement with an increase in the number of teachers entering via such pathways after controlling for other variables. By contrast, the authors report a significant increase in the likelihood of high student achievement in districts with comprehensively prepared educators. Districts that were outliers in their high success rate for serving children of color were districts with very high numbers of comprehensively prepared teachers. Darling-Hammond, Holtzman, Gatlin, and Heilig (2005) found clear “benefits to recruiting fully prepared teachers who can launch their careers at a higher level of effectiveness” (p. 23). We cannot offer our children back those years of school while underprepared educators attempt to learn the complex work of teaching without comprehensive, university preparation or internships that offer an understanding of and ability to apply culturally relevant (Ladson-Billings, 1995) approaches to teaching and learning. Emergency credentialed instructors serving in historically marginalized communities’ classrooms may be particularly harmful, as it is likely to fuel the dangerous but prevalent myth of a culture of poverty, which serves to blame students and families for the so-called “achievement gap” while ignoring the systemic issues that have denied those same communities equitable learning opportunities for generations Updated September 10, 2019 2 (Ladson-Billings, 2006). Statistically, the data are clear that teacher education affects student learning. Researchers have found that with the increase of emergency certified teachers, student performance decreases in mathematics and reading. Further, administrators rated university educator preparation program graduates as more strongly prepared in their methods of teaching. Teachers’ self-assessments affirmed these findings (Wilson, Floden, & Ferrini-Mundy, 2002, p. 193). Student performance in Oklahoma took a recent downward trend that appears to reflect these findings. “Student performance in the year-over-year snapshot in math shows an overall slight downward trend (mean Oklahoma Performance Index, or OPI, score) and a steeper downward trend in English language arts (ELA) performance from 2017 to 2019.” Superintendent Hofmeister (personal communication, 2019) goes on to note, “It is important that we keep these results in perspective as we move forward, united in our efforts to ensure every child in an Oklahoma public school has the opportunity to achieve academic success that leads to a bright future.” The studies’ findings are also echoed in the 2018 Oklahoma’s Administrator/Mentor First Year Teacher Survey Data. Statistical analyses indicated that among all four domains of the Oklahoma-mandated InTASC Standards (The Learner & Learning, Content, Instructional Practices, and Professional Responsibilities), university prepared educators were rated at a significantly higher level than their alternatively certified colleagues by their mentors or administrators. When ranking mean scores in each domain, university-based TEPs were rated highest, followed by either the alternative or para- professional route depending on the domain. In all four domains, emergency certified educators’ means and Teach For America educators’ means were rated second lowest and lowest, respectively, by administrators or mentors. When first year teachers rated their own preparation and effectiveness in teaching on a related survey, self-ratings were significantly higher among university-prepared educators when compared to alternative routes (Debacker, 2018). Fully prepared teachers are more likely to stay in the profession (DeAngelis, Wall, & Che, 2013; Ingersoll, Merrill, & May, 2014, as cited in Kim & Corcoran, 2017), are more confident in their practice (Darling-Hammond, 2006, as cited in Kim & Corcoran, 2017), and are better rated by employers (Patterson & Bastian, 2014, as cited in Kim & Corcoran, 2017). Although Oklahoma does not currently have a longitudinal data system, Oklahoma’s university-based TEPs are required to produce valid and reliable data regarding impact on student learning. The differences in Oklahoma teacher success persisted when considering certification test scores

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